aka The Legend of Matt, the Magical Collector Imp

About us you ask? Well, we’re just a bunch of nerds who are fanatical about collecting. We love pop art, pop culture, comic books, gaming, KidRobot, Manga, etc. We’re not very old however some of us recall with fondness the days when you had to get off the phone to use the internet . Others among us remember the pre-Napster days of recording our favourite songs from the radio onto a tape recorder while willing the DJ not to talk over the track. The younger ones among us think that books are ‘retro’.

 This is a blog. A very sparse one as yet but we hope to rectify that soon-ish. This blog is here, mainly as a distraction from important work we should be doing, but also as a means of logging our quest to take over the world. Or at the very least conquer a significant portion of it. A ‘Dear Diary’ if you will…

Let me tell you a story. Not that long ago, on a sunny island on the Northern Beaches lived a little collector imp. We’ll call him Matt. Matt lived down by the creek with an impressive collection of hats. He had collected hats from all over the world and when he was feeling whimsical, he would wear two at the one time. He could be crazy like that.

Living with Matt at the Creek were three other collector imps; John, Glenn and, because no tale would be complete without a lovely heroine, there was a beautiful dark-haired impette called Aimee.

Matt liked to collect things, like comic books. Nothing made Matt  happier than to go to all the different markets out there and find his favourite comics. Aimee would go along and add to her collection of KidRobots, Glenn had a thing for metal and John, being the quintessential impettes-man would come along and charm the collector impettes.

The three friends found that sometimes it was easy to find what they were looking for but often, it was nigh on impossible. They would meet other collector imps who would empathise with them that it was so difficult to find anything you needed. But nobody seemed to have a solution to the problem. It seemed like it was getting more and more difficult to find anything for your collection. Why was it so difficult? It was a conundrum. Even Glenn was finding it difficult to add little bits of metal to his pile.

Matt felt sure that the problem wasn’t that there weren’t any collectables but that they were so scattered across all the different markets in the world, that they were proving impossible to find. Being an industrious little imp, and a hard-core collector, Matt made it his business to find a solution to the problem so that he and his friends could complete their collections and live happily ever after. He decided that, as with all epic tales involving a search, this one required a long walk.

He set off from the creek early one morning, bringing with him his collection of hats, a rare copy of Spiderman #1 and an unnamed energy drink so that he would have enough stamina to fulfil his quest. He traversed mountain-y terrain, swam through treacherous rivers and fought off fearsome chihuahuas  who mistook him for a postman. He traveled until it got dark and his energy fuel had run out. At this stage, he was a long way from home and it would be foolhardy to try to get back to the creek under cover of darkness. He was also not any closer to finding an answer to the interminable problem; where can collectors collect? He decided that he should rest for the night and so, finding a warm cave he settled down for the night on some dry leaves to read his Spiderman comic.

It was dry and warm in the cave and Matt was just becoming really sleepy when he heard the faint sounds of the Super Mario theme song. Rising from his make-shift in bed in some trepidation, Matt moved slowly further into the cave. He carefully felt his way over large boulders, ducked his head to avoid crashing into the bats who lived in the cave and followed the distinctive digital bleeps of the 1990′s video game. As he reached what felt like the back of the cave, he lost his footing, stumbled and fell headlong into a colossal pit.

Once he had regained consciousness, and his eyes had become accustomed to the gloom, Matt realised that he was lying on a treasure trove of collectables including Action Figures, KidRobot, Comic Books, Manga, Games Consoles, Video Games (including the aforementioned Super Mario game), Vinyl Toys, Plush Toys, LEGO, Posters, DVDs, Digital Pets and much more. It was every collectors dream but…it was also anarchy. Aside from being quite the comic book connoisseur and avid hat fanatic, Matt is quite an organised individual. So he had a thought; why not organise all of these collectables so that they are in their own categories and make it a place where all his collector friends could hang out, make new friends, swap/share/sell their items, get advice from other collectors and generally, you know, collect.

His exhaustion forgotten he leaped up, scrambled out of the cave and ran as fast as his little imp legs would carry him back to the creek, where fellow imps John, Glenn and Aimee were waiting for him. Breathlessly, Matt described his adventure, leaving out the bit about the chihuahua in case anybody judged him, and told them a tale of a wonderful cave filled with everything they had ever dreamed of. He began to describe his vision of a world where people could come together and share their passion and feel part of something amazing.

Needing no further encouragement, the other three immediately agreed to help Matt organise, collect, sort, file, and make awesome the new place for all of their friends.  They gathered their stuff and started on the long road back.

On their way back to the cave, they came across a wandering impette at the side of the road. She spoke with an Irish accent and had hair whiter than the sun (natural, of course). They first had to ascertain that she wasn’t in fact a leprechaun (because leprechauns are renowned for their trickiness and would be no help in creating this awesome community). She explained to them in her thick Irish accent that she was lost and looking for somewhere to call home. In an effort to stop her talking so much, the three friends told her about their magical cave and brought her along on their adventure.

They called it Curicon. It is a place of magical adventure, a place for collectors to call home and somewhere where everybody is welcome to hang out.

Other collector imps heard about this wonderful place and turned up with wagon-loads of their individual collections, looking for a place to meet other imps. Now Matt, Aimee, John, Glenn and Kerrie are busy at work creating the world of Curicon. It’s a fun and happy place where nobody is ever sad and nobody has really grown up.  Come join us on our adventure at www.curicon.com

THE END

(NOT REALLY – THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING)

P.S: We’re creative, not delusional. Some of this blog constitutes substantial creative license on our part. Except the part about the hats. Matt quite likes those. So feel free to send him some

PPs: That awesome cartoon of Matt is by the lovely Leilani Krenn. You can check her art out at http://lazerkitteh3000.deviantart.com/